Seminars on Premodern Japanese Books

The International Collaboration Division primarily aims to nurture the next generation and co-hosts the “Seminars on Premodern Japanese Book” with partner institutions abroad, targeting graduate students and librarians. In recent years, an environment has been gradually established on the internet where Japanese classical works from all fields, starting with our “Union Catalogue Database of Japanese Texts,” can be easily accessed. The ability to correctly handle and interpret Japanese classical works is becoming increasingly important, and acquiring this skill can provide new insights. Materials and lecture videos from past seminars can be viewed under “Past Seminars on Premodern Japanese Books.” We encourage you to step into the rich world of Japanese classical works.

Beijing Foreign Studies University, Beijing Center for Japanese Studies (Beijing, China)

We conduct seminars focusing on themes that interest the participants, inviting leading researchers in the respective fields as lecturers. By bringing in researchers from diverse disciplines, the seminars are positioned not only as a means of fostering the next generation but also as contributing to the establishment of international collaborative networks. Participants also learn practical ways to utilize resources, including our ‘Union Catalogue Database of Japanese Texts’ and image materials available on the Internet.

University of Hawaii at Manoa (Honolulu, U.S.)

With the cooperation of the Honolulu Museum of Art, we hold seminars co-hosted by the school, the museum, and a third institution. Lecturers, mainly our faculty members, give lectures on Richard Lane’s collection at the museum. Additionally, taking this seminar as an opportunity, we provide bibliographic research lectures to volunteer students who have begun working on investigating the collection.

University of California, Berkeley (Berkeley, U.S.)

At the same university, there is the ‘Mitsui Bunko’ collection, purchased from the Mitsui zaibatsu family in 1950 (Showa 25). Since 1983 (Showa 58), our institute has been conducting a thorough survey of this collection and publishing catalogs and other materials. The seminar focuses on this collection, where lecturers, mainly from our faculty, highlight notable classical works and explain their characteristics along with new insights.